Neither Forgiveness Nor
OblivionChile: The Death of a Murderer by Tito Tricot
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 11, 2006

Neither
forgiveness nor oblivion, for that distant Tuesday of a late Autumn lives
in the memory, the skin and gaze of a people that did not deserve so much
sorrow. None can and should not forget the desperate chanting of the
disappeared, reclined, who knows, against the shadow of a peach tree,
gasping for a sunbeam. And the military know where they are, they know
their names, they heard their last sighs. They know where they are, the
Generals know, the Admirals know. Pinochet knows, therefore we did not
feel sorry for his agony, we did not commiserate with his plight, we do
not grieve his death.

What really does hurt us is the fact that
the dictator did not spend a single minute in prison and that all sorts of
subterfuges were used to evade justice. Tenuous and lenient justice at
that, fading away in numerous habeas corpus, appeals and the coward cries
of a man who did not hesitate to kill and torture, but whenever he had to
face the lukewarm Chilean justice, claimed impunity and insanity so that
he could seek refuge in the tranquility of his home.

But he knows, he always knew everything that
went on in this country, because he gave precise orders to detain, torture
and murder. The dictator dictated. That's why businessmen worshiped him,
because they rejoiced themselves buying Chile at a cheap price. That's why
he was loved by large state owners who recovered their land handed over to
poor peasants through the agrarian reform. That's why he was venerated by
bankers that sold out the country with the dictatorship's support. That's
why the Right greeted him unconditionally in his days of obscure glory.
But when the glory was over, when slowly but surely the truth about human
rights violations became known, everyone turned their back on him. Thus
the dictator was alone in the abyss of his senility. However, he continued
lying and betraying, as he always did, because he was not as senile after
all, because he was not as lonely after all; because every time he faced
charges or some alleged health problem arose, his supporters re-appeared
again praising his work.

Then they talked about economic growth, the
country's modernization or its insertion in the world market, of Free
Trade Agreements and macroeconomic indicators. And then the disappeared
disappeared again, as did the assassinated, the tortured, and the
prisoners. They disappeared between the interstices of an omnipresent
market that pierces the soul of a wounded country. Like it was wounded on
September 11th 1973 and every day and every night after by the
dictatorship of a dictator that knew, that always knew.

But Pinochet never had the courage to admit
his personal and political responsibility for the State terrorism he
imposed on Chile for nearly two decades. But no matter how many times he
denied it or how many deaths he dies, our people know, the world knows of
his cowardice and the cowardice of all those that protected him. He killed
us a thousand times, but he could not kill our memory or quell our spirit.
He died and we are alive; he lost and we triumphed.

Tito Tricot
was a political prisoner during the Pinochet dictatorship and is an
independent journalist and a sociologist. He directs academic programs in
Chile for the School for International Training, the University Academy of
Christian Humanism and the University of Art and Social Sciences.